“Bad taste”, “awful”, “not funny”: after the icy reception given by critics to Roman Polanski’s comedy, the Venice Film Festival on Monday highlights Woody Allen, another filmmaker banished from Hollywood.
Unlike Polanski, who has been on the run for 40 years from American justice after a conviction for illegal sexual relations with a minor, Woody Allen is not worried by the courts, and no sexual assault investigation concerning him has resulted. At 87, the director of Annie Hall and Match Point, a master of humor and social satire, has nonetheless lived on the fringes of the seventh art for several years, hardly touring the United States anymore, and has become for some one of the symbols of sexist and sexual violence. In question: the accusations of sexual assault launched by Dylan Farrow, whom he adopted as a child, with his ex-wife Mia Farrow.
His invitation to the Mostra, which he should a priori tread the red carpet to present out of competition Coup de chance, has everything to divide. On the one hand, those who see it as a symbol of the impunity of artists, on the other those who call for favoring the presumption of innocence, or for separating the artist from his work, such as the director of the festival, Alberto Barbara. On the cinema side, will Coup de chance mark the last stand of a filmmaker in need of inspiration in recent years, or a creative burst? This fiftieth film is his first shot in France with French actors, Lou de Laâge, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider and Valérie Lemercier. It promises to be a thriller tinged with vaudeville, around an extramarital affair in the Paris of the beautiful districts and will be released in French theaters on September 27.
As for the race for the Golden Lion, this 80th edition of the Mostra, which continues in the absence of most of the biggest stars due to the historic strike of actors and screenwriters in Hollywood, is still very open. Among the favorites of international critics, halfway through, stands out a fantastic film with American star Emma Stone, Pauvres Créatures, by Greek Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, La Favourite). Also noticed were the Ferrari by Michael Mann, with Adam Driver, or The Beast by Bertrand Bonello, with Léa Seydoux.
Also read: With The Killer, David Fincher fulfills his contract at the Mostra
Jury president Damien Chazelle (La la Land, Babylon) and his colleagues, including director Jane Campion, are due to see two anticipated films on Monday: Priscilla by Sofia Coppola, a biopic on the wife of “king” Elvis Presley, and the new film by the Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Evil does not exist, after the success of Drive My Car, awarded at Cannes before going to the Oscars. On the French side, Stéphane Brizé (Hors-Saison, with Guillaume Canet) and out of competition Quentin Dupieux, crowned by the summer success of his comedy Yannick, are still expected in competition for his latest absurd film, Daaaaaali!.
